Comparing the Two Pictures of London, Illustrated by Wordsworth and Bla

Comparing the Two Pictures of London, Illustrated by Wordsworth and Blake in Their Two Poems The two poems depicting London by Wordsworth and Blake are in some ways similar and yet have many differences. Both observations of London are depicted through the poets' personal perspectives of London using individual experiences. We can tell that both poems are from the person's interpretations and experiences as they are said in the first person: 'Ne'er saw Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦' in Wordswoths' poem and: 'I wonder through each chartered streetà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦' in Blakes'. Both poems are well structured and use emphatic language. 'Upon Westminster Bridge' is a Petrachran sonnet which expresses strong emotion. It depicts his joy and awe of a beautiful city that is sleeping. It comes across as very optimistic with only positive things to say. The elation is built up through the sonnet using rhyme and emphatic language '... a calm so deep!' and similes are used that portray an underlying theme 'This city now doth, like a garment, wear.' I think this is where the first look at the poem is not enough to fully grasp Wordsworth's meaning. Blake's poem at first glance is very much the opposite: it too uses emphatic language and builds up the feeling through the quatrains which allow his thoughts to progress yet the feeling and emotional outbursts are of a completely different nature. This poem seems pessimistic and has only gloom and negative points mentioned.' In every cry of every man' is different to Wordsworths' depiction of serenity, beauty and calm: 'A sight so touching in its majesty'. The River Thames is used in both poems but is illustrated differently. ... ...hat people are trapped in their social status but it is only in the mind and thoughts can be changed it isn't yet a physical state. This leaves us with optimism of change. Wordsworth although his poem is very optimistic the irony is that it is only captured in one moment. His depiction is not typical. He talks about London being this beautiful thing but he is talking form the panoramic view above it all and more than that he is talking whilst London is asleep leaving us to believe that it will be different, more like Blake's poem once London re-awakens. He talks from a moment in the revolution where ' This city now doth, like a garment, wearà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦' implying it is superficial and normally the city isn't like that. So when looking deeper in to both poems there is an ironic ulterior meaning there which connect the two.

The Protagonist Victor in “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” by Sherman Alexie

Victor In the very first sentence of Sherman Alexie's â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,† you can assume that the main character, Victor, is facing a hard life. Not only did he lose his job, he also lost his father to a heart attack the same day. The story tells the journey of Victor and an old friend, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, traveling to Phoenix to pick up his father's ashes, pickup truck, and money from his savings account. Victor did not have any money and neither did anyone else living on the reservation, â€Å"Who does have money on a reservation, except the cigarette and fireworks sales-people? (page 275) Victor has to turn to the tribal council for money, but they are also low on funds and can only give him one-hundred dollars. Thomas is considered the town’s outcast and he is the only one willing to help Victor. Victor goes on to say that he used to be friends with Thomas until they were about fifteen and then Victor turned his back on him bec ause everyone else thought he was weird. He also talks about their childhood and the memories they share and the fact that Thomas knew about Victor’s father wanting to leave before it ever happened. Once, when they were seven years old, when Victor’s father still lived with the family, Thomas closed his eyes and told Victor this story: â€Å"Your father’s heart is weak. He is afraid of his own family. He is afraid of you. † (page 275). Thomas ends up giving Victor the rest of the money he needs, but only if Victor allows Thomas to go along. The author never really gives any physical traits, but you know he is an Indian, does not have a lot of money, just lost his father, and lives on a reservation.The author does not specially tell you how old Victor is. There is no mention of any other family besides his mother, â€Å"†¦and the rest of his family didn’t have any use at all for him. † (page 275) Even though Victor’s father did no t play a big part in his life, â€Å"there still was a genetic pain, which was soon to be pain as real and immediate and a broken bone. † (page 275) Victor is a dynamic and round character because he slowly begins to change throughout the story. Victor is continuously complaining about Thomas or making fun of him.When they are on the plane and Thomas is talking to the gymnast, â€Å"Victor was ready to jump out of the plane. Thomas, that crazy Indian storyteller with ratty old braids and broken teeth†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (page 278) I think that Victor is somewhat ashamed of his Native American background because he did not want to turn out like Thomas. Throughout the course of their trip, Victor begins to accept Thomas and understand him more. When Victor agrees to listen to just one of Thomas’ stories, â€Å"Just one time when I’m telling a story somewhere, why don’t you stop and listen?Thomas asked. Victor waved his arms to let Thomas know that the deal was good,† (page 282) the reader begins to see the new, more accepting Victor. The old Victor would be too afraid of what others were thinking about him to stop and listen to Thomas tell a story, but now he accepts who he is and also who his cousin Thomas is. â€Å"Victor was quiet for a long time. He searched his mind for memories of his father, found the good ones, found a few bad ones, added it all up, and smiled. This is another turning point in the story because this is where Victor finally accepts his relationship with his father and is at peace. â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona† shows the true value of friendship. In the later part of their relationship, Victor was a really bad friend to Thomas, but Thomas has been there for Victor so many times throughout their childhood, and even now that they are adults. Although Thomas was not physically by Victor’s side, he was there the whole time waiting to come to Victor’s rescue.The story go es back and forth to show how Victor and Thomas were once friends. Thomas even made a deal with Victor’s father to watch over Victor, â€Å"But he said I had to watch out for you as part of the deal. † (page 279) Victor is in debt to Thomas and even gives him some of his father’s ashes. By the end of the story, Victor finally realized the true meaning of friendship with his own cousin Thomas, and that all those other guys that made fun of him for being friends with Thomas when they were children were not true friends.At the end of the story Victor realizes how hurtful he has been to Thomas when in reality; Thomas was the only one who stood by Victor’s side and in return â€Å"all Thomas had ever wanted from his whole life,† (page 282) was for someone to just stop and listen to him tell one of his stories. I think Victor became a man at the end of the story. He finally learned to accept Thomas, his relationship with his father, and his Native Americ an heritage.

Virtue in Several Dialogues

Plato presents Socrates bewitchs on the interview whether legality mountain be taught in several(prenominal) dialogues, most nonably in Protagoras and Meno. In Meno Menon puts the ch onlyenge to Socrates this way Can you severalise me, Socrates fecal matter rightfulness be taught? Or if non, does it occur by design? Or does it come neither by practice nor by t for each staring, simply do quite a lilliputian get it by nature, or in more or less other way? 35. Socrates claims to not distinguish the least little amour ab place moral excellence and unable to address as to its qualities.Moreover, he claims to receive no unmatched that does. 29. T here follows a intervention as to whether Gorgias, the Sophist, might not be such a person. Both Socrates and Menon know Gorgias teaching. Menon obviously has a higher creed of Gorgias teaching than does Socrates. It is agreed, upon Socrates designateion, that the intercourse should expire to explore what Menon, not Go rgias, knows round righteousness. And so Socrates, puts the question to Menon What do you say chastity is? 29Menon strikes secret code difficult in the question and attempts, forthwith, to resolve it. But there argon complications with the answer, for Menon has suggested that workforce, strivers, children, women exclusively demonstrate a different multifariousness of virtue, and concludes that there is a virtue for doing each phase of work associated with being a slave, a child, a woman, a empty man. Menons idea of virtue is what we would prefigure billet specific.Socrates attempts to show that Menons initial answer misses the storey because it does not show what is parkland to the virtues of these diverse actors. If the virtue of men and women, free men and slaves, does not sh argon something in commonalty past it cannot be said to be the same thing and genius would needfully c every the one virtue, and the other something else. As Socrates puts it, Even if there ar e galore(postnominal) different kinds of them virtues, they all have one something, the same in all, which suck ins them virtues. 30. Menon accepts Socrates criticism and manages that it is therefore one thing of which he speaks.In order to determine what the common property of virtue is, Socrates observes that Menon has associated virtue with the ability to vie reality affairs well. Socrates now sets out to question Menon on whether virtue would be present in the management of public affairs in the absence of mitigation and justice and Menon readily agrees that it would not.Socrates has already disclaimed whatsoever personal knowledge of virtue and he has steered Menon away from a discussion of Gorgias view of virtue. But when Menon fails to depart a glib-tongued account of his conception of virtue, Socrates poses a question with substantive content. Socrates may know zero point around virtue, but he knows plenty to ask whether virtue can be present without graveness a nd justice. The question suggest that it is Socrates rather than Menon who knows enough near virtue to keep the conversation going.Socrates interrupts the dialogue to make a brief statement about the conversation he has been having with Menon. He distinguishes the conversation he is having with Menon from those where the questioner is one of those smart fellow, who just chop logic and argue to win. Questions such as the one that Socrates and Menon are discussing whether virtue can be taught? are best left, says Socrates, to friends who wish to talk unneurotic. In such a relationship argues Socrates, I essential answer more mildly and more worry friends talk of the town together and perhaps it is more same(p) friends talking together, not only to answer with truth, but to use only what the one who is questioned admits that he knows. 34Socrates, in rapport with Menon, tries to clear up a mathematical confusion as to whether it is possible to seek that which is ruinous. Soc rates suggests, as he does in other dialogues, that we all passion approximate things. Menon has responded to Socrates question by verbal expression that one can desire bad things. Socrates tries to clarify this point by intercommunicate whether one desires that which is bad because of a mistake, that it is fancied to be bad.But Menon does not hook up on the point and contends that one desires the bad both as a result of a misplaced self-reliance as to its value and we can alike desire the bad even when it is cognise to be bad. But upon further questions, Menon agrees with Socrates that no one seeks to inflict injury and stroke upon himself, and it is injury and misery that are the results of that which is bad. Socrates unofficial of their agreement goes like this Then it is complain that those who desire bad things are those who dont know what they are, but they desire what they thought were good whereas they really are bad. . . . 37Menon has mentioned in pass(a) that virtue consists of the desire of good things and to provide the good. Menon admits that one good thing it is possible to desire is to possess gold and silvern and public honour and appointments. 38. Socrates inquires now whether the virtue of self-command of gold and silver must be qualified so that its possession is fair and just. Menon agrees that it is not a virtue to have such possessions if they have been unjustly acquired. On the contrary it would be a vice. It is necessary, Socrates says, to add to this getting, justice or temperance or piety or some other bit of virtue, or else it entrust not be virtue, although it provides good things. 39Socrates rebuffs Menon for exhausting to talk about virtue by looking at it piece by piece and drawing into the discussion a sense of virtue that he has not yet presented. Menon agrees that it is a problem and comments on his reaction to what has gone on advantageously now, my dear Socrates, you are just like what I always heard in the first place I met you always dumbfound yourself and enigmatic everybody else. And now you seem to me to be a regular wizard, you dose me with drugs and bewitch me with charms and spells, and overpower me in puzzledom. Ill tell you just what you are like, if you will forgive a little jest your looks and the rest of you are hardly like a flatfish and you sting like this stingrayonly go near and interrelate one of those fish and you go numb, and that is the sort of thing you seem to have through with(p) to me. 40Socrates response to Menons description of his puzzlement is that he himself is not clear-headed when he puzzles others, and that he is as puzzled as puzzled can be, and thence I make others puzzled too. 41. And where can the conversation go from here? Socrates says, that he wishes to investigate virtue with Menons abet so that we may both generate to find out what it is. 41Socrates argues that there is no such thing as teaching, only remembering. This notion of teach ing comes out of Socrates teaching in the immortality of the disposition. The soul dies but is born-again and thus never destroyed. (This is given by Socrates as a reason for why we must live our lives as lots as we can in holiness. . . .) Then, since the soul is immortal and often born, having seen what is on demesne and what is in the house of Hades, and everything, there is nil it has not watch outt so there is no wonder it can remember about virtue and other things, because it knew about these before. For since all nature is akin, and the soul has learnt everything, there is energy to hinder a man, remembering one thing onlywhich men call readingfrom himself finding out all else, if he is brave and does not wear down in seeking for seeking and learning is all remembrance. 42After questioning the slave boy about geometry Socrates seeks Menons concurrence in the proposition that the boy, shown to have been in break about geometry, is better off now, that he too is numbed but has knowledge about the limits of what he knows. By being numbed by the sting of Socrates conversation the slave has come a step onwards, as it seems, to find out how he stands. 29. Menon answers yes, when Socrates asked Then do you think he would have act to find out or to learn what he thought he knew, not knowing, until he tumbled into difficulty by thought he did not know, and longed to know? Menon agrees, that he does not think he would and thus gains from being numbed.Menon takes up again his captain question, whether virtue can be taught, or one gets it by nature or in some other way. Socrates agrees to proceed but contends that they need a common ground as neither of them can say at this point what virtue is. Socrates has Menon agree that if virtue is knowledge then it can be taught, and if not a knowledge then it cannot be taught. (Conclusion altogether that is taught call be called knowledge.)